Apparatus for transporting, treating and storing articles

ABSTRACT

A production line wherein extremely heavy and bulky commodities, such as metallic bands which are convoluted on reels and weigh up to and in excess of 20,000 lbs., are treated at several stations is provided with a first magazine at the receiving end, a second magazine at the discharge end and an intermediate magazine between two neighboring departments. The commodities are transported in the magazines by vehicles which are movable lengthwise as well as up and down to store the commodities at different levels or to withdraw commodities from selected compartments of the respective magazines. Additional vehicles in the form of cars, lifters, cranes or the like are provided to transport commodities from a preceding magazine, to stations which are adjacent to various machines of the production line, and from such machines to the next magazine, always at a level above or below the level of the production line. The production line may be set up to anneal the commodities which are withdrawn from the first magazine prior to introduction into the first magazine, to thereupon roll the commodities in one or more passes, to trim the commodities, to subdivide the commodities, and to heat the commodities prior to storage in the second magazine from which the commodities are withdrawn for transport to inspecting, packing and/or other stations.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 490,299,filed on July 22, 1974, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,113 issued July 1, 1975,which in turn was a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 399,182, filedon Sept. 20, 1973 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,201 on Nov. 23,1976.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatichandling, transporting and storing bulky and heavy commodities, such asreels of elongated metallic stock, convoluted webs of paper, metallic orplastic foil, textile material or the like, some of which are describedin "PLASTICS FILM TECHNOLOGY" by W. R. R. Park (1969), Van NostrandReinhold Company, New York. More particularly, the invention relates toa method and apparatus for transporting, temporarily storing, orientingand/or otherwise manipulating bulky and extremely heavy commoditieswhich are being treated in one or more production lines. For example,the method and apparatus can be resorted to in connection with themanipulation of commodities having a weight in excess of 5,000kilograms.

Extremely heavy commodities, e.g., in the form of reels for woundmetallic rod, sheet or strip stock, are manipulated in a variety ofplants, such as in rolling mills. As a rule, the stock must be unwoundfrom a reel, transported through successive stations of one or morecomplete production lines, and again collected on the core of a reel fortransport to storage or for shipment to customers. Similar problemsarise in certain printing plants wherein extremely long webs of paper ortextile material are imprinted, impregnated and/or otherwise treated; inmanufacturing and processing plants for metallic or plastic foils; infinishing rolling mills for sheet metal; and many other establishments.It is often necessary to repeatedly unwind and collect extremely longwebs, strips or rods of metallic or other material which is stored onreels or spools, an operation which can be carried out only by resortingto extremely complex, large, heavy and expensive equipment. Since thepaying out and collecting of webs, strips or rods is a time-consumingoperation, the manufactures strive to use extremely long stock to thusreduce the intervals of idleness of machines which form the productionline. It is not unusual to collect metallic sheet or rod stock in theform of rolls weighing well in excess of 10,000 kilograms. Similarproblems arise when a production line is set up for the treatment ofbulky blocks or metallic material which must be turned, lifted, lowered,inverted, tilted and/or otherwise manipulated at each of a series oftreating stations. It is already known to treat such heavy and bulkycommodities in accordance with a predetermined schedule.

In certain plants, such as in factories employing recent types ofrolling mills, heavy and bulky commodities are transported by overheadcranes and by floor-type lift trucks which are not confined to travelalong tracks. The storing of commodities in the interior of the planttakes place at certain predetermined locations, or the commodities arestored in sheds which are located outside of the plant proper. Thestoring in the interior of the plant and/or the transport within theplant presents many problems due to excessive stressing of the floor;therefore, such storing and/or transport is permissible only if thebuilding is properly designed so that it can stand extremely highstresses. Moreover, the storing of a large number of bulky commoditiesin the interior of a factory contributes excessively to the dimensionsof he building or results in clogging of the area in the vicinity ofmachines so that the components of the production lines are not readilyaccessible for inspection and/or repair. This problem is particularlyacute when the commodities must be treated in a large number of machineseach of which occupies a substantial amount of floor space and/orextends to a level well above the floor. Attempts to solve the justdiscussed problems include the utilization of complex conveyances whichcan transport bulky commodities in any one of several directions orsimultaneously in several directions. This reduces somewhat thelikelihood of congestion but delays considerably the transfer ofcommodities from station to station.

In certain other plants, bulky and extremely heavy commodities aretransported by simple roller conveyors which are designed to advance thecommodities along straight paths. Such conveyors take up space and aresatisfactory only when the orientation of commodities need not bechanged at all or when the commodities must be reoriented at a singlestation or at a small number of stations. In all other instances, theplant must be provided with complex turning, lifting, tilting,inverting, shifting and/or other reorienting equipment which isextremely costly and occupies a substantial amount of floor space.Moreover, certain commodities are so sensitive that they cannot orshould not be repeatedly gripped by the jaws or analogous parts oftilting, lifting and/or other reorienting or displacinginstrumentalities.

The just discussed problems in connection with the manipulation ofcommodities whose weight is in excess of one, five or ten thousandkilograms are aggrevated due to the fact that the equipment which ispresently used for such manipulation must be sufficiently safe and mustbe capable of handling bulky commodities without any danger of damage toparts of the equipment and/or to the processed material. This, too,contributes to the initial and maintenance cost of such equipment, toits bulkiness and complexity, to its sensitivity, as well as to the costof the final product. There exists an urgent need for a method andapparatus which can be resorted to for economical handling of extremelyheavy and bulky workpieces, which can be installed in existing plants,which renders it possible to avoid damage to the buildings, to theapparatus, to the production line and/or to the workpieces, and whichalso permits automatic remote control of transport and handling to allowfully automatic production processes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a simple, reliable andeconomical method of manipulating heavy and bulky metallic and/or othercommodities which must be treated in each of a series of machines whichform part of one or more production lines. The method must permit fullyautomatic remote control, including safety interlocks and suitable forcomputerization.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method of transportingand storing heavy commodities in an optimum position for introductioninto selected processing machines and in such a way that the commoditiesare accessible to pieces or relatively simple transporting, orienting,lifting and/or other equipment.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improvedapparatus system for transporting, storing, orienting, lifting and/orotherwise manipulating heavy commodities or workpieces weighing in therange of up to and in excess of 10,000 kilograms.

The method of the present invention may be resorted to for manipulationof extremely heavy and bulky commodities, especially coiled metallicband stock or the like weighing up to and in excess of 20,000 lbs., in aplant wherein the stock is treated at several stations of at least oneproduction line which is located at a predetermined level. The methodcomprises the steps of transporting the commodities between the stationsat at least one second level which is located above or below thepredetermined level, and storing the commodities in separate buildingsat the receiving and discharge ends of the production line as well as,if necessary, at one or more intermediate points of the production line.

The method makes use of handling and transporting apparatus withsimplified movements and giving rigid support to the reel withoutgripping the wound goods. The apparatus movements are combined instraight line or star transfer arrangements. The rigid supporting allowsfor high acceleration without load shift. The simplified movements, forexample, only up-or-down and forward-or-backward, permit more reliableconstruction and multiple use of standardized apparatus in the sameplant. Arrangement of transport paths in straight or radial lines,together with reliable construction design, substantially facilitatesautomation of the handling, fully interlocked with the production lines.

The commodities are preferably stored in high stack warehouses whereinthe commodities may be put to temporary storage at a plurality ofdifferent levels. The devices for transporting the commodities betweenthe magazines and the various stations may include one or more cranes,jacks, cars, dollies, turning devices, vehicles which are movable up anddown as well as along horizontal paths, and/or others. At least one ofthe magazines may be provided with means for cooling the commoditiestherein to or somewhat above room temperature.

The production line may be designed to subject bandlike metallic stockto rolling treatment in a plurality of passes, to anneal the stock, tosubdivide the stock into shorter sections, to trim the stock, to windthe shorter sections onto smaller and handier reels, and/or to performany other operations which must be completed before the finishedmaterial is transferred to an inspecting or packing station or isintroduced into a magazine for storage prior to transport to customers.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic of theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. Theimproved apparatus system itself, however, both as to its constructionand its mode of operation, together with additional features andadvantages thereof, will be best understood upon perusal of thefollowing detailed description of certain specific embodiments withreference to the accompanying drawing.

The attached drawing shows diagrammatically by way of example andapplication of the method and apparatus for the almost fully automatedplant for the cold reduction of sheet metal to thin gage wound in coils.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIGS. 01 and 02 show a layout of the full plant in horizontal andvertical section;

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of the first plant section on alarger scale and shows the material entry for receiving rolled coils ofthicker gage, a battery of annealing furnaces and the first high stackwarehouse;

FIG. 2 overlaps with FIG. 1 and is a diagrammatic plan view of a secondplant section wherein the bands are treated in a plurality of rollingmills and are trimmed prior to introduction into second or intermediatehigh stack warehouse;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic elevational view of the structure shown in FIG.2;

FIG. 4 overlaps with FIG. 2 and is a diagrammatic plan view of a thirdplant section wherein the bands are treated in slitting and rewindingmachines and are thereupon transferred into a third high stack warehouseat the discharge end of the production line;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic elevational view of the structure shown in FIG.4; and

FIG. 6 overlaps with FIG. 4 and is a diagrammatic plan view of the thirdhigh stack warehouse at the discharge end of the production line and ofa continuous annealing furnace wherein the bands are heated prior tocooling in the warehouse and prior to subsequent transfer to inspecting,packing and/or other stations.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 01 and 02 given an overall illustration of the complete plant towhich the method and apparatus system have been applied.

Sheet metal in coils with rolling temper arrive at A, are annealed to asoft temper and go to cooling into the high stack warehouse 201.

Coils at room temperature are transported from warehouse 201 to thefirst and second mill stands in the rolling mill section 112. The sheetmetal heats up due to the work during each reduction pass and isreturned to the warehouse 201 for cooling to room temperature.

The gage becomes thinner and the sheet becomes much longer; therefore,the sheet is divided by a shear on the second mill and wound on twoseparate reels which are thereupon transferred to mill stands 3-5 andintermediate storage in the high stack warehouse 211.

From warehouse 211 the coils enter the slitting and rewinding section217. They are rewound to customers' specifications and are then annealedto a soft temper in section 207. Afterwards, they are allowed to cool inthe high stack warehouse 216 before they go to section 118 forinspection testing and packaging.

The packaged goods are then transferred by a roller conveyor to the highstack warehouse 218 from where they are combined to form car sizetransport loads and leave at B.

Except for the unloading at A, loading at B, slitting at 217 andpackaging at 118, all other operations are fully automated andinterlocked with the processing machinery.

To show the method in more detail, FIGS. 1 to 6 have been drawn toenlarged scale, overlapping as shown in FIGS. 01 and 02.

FIG. 1 illustrates the floor plan of a first section or department of asheet metal cold rolling plant with a battery of three annealingfurnaces 202. The inlet or receiving station of the production line inthe plant is shown at 200 where trucks, railroad cars or otherheavy-duty vehicles can deliver heavy and bulky commodities, e.g., reelsor spools with coiled metallic sheet or band stock. The commoditieswhich are delivered to the receiving station 200 can be removed by atransporting device or crane 101 which is movable along fixed overheadrails 101a to transfer commodities from the station 200 to any one ofseveral intermediate or temporary storing locations or stations 102. Thecrane 101 has three movements: rising or lowering, turning and to orfro. A transporting device or coil lift car 103 with only up or down andto and fro movement is mounted for travel along rails 103a and serves totransfer commodities from the storing locations 102 into a first highstack warehouse or storing means 201. The commodities which enter thehigh stack warehouse 201 can be conveyed by a floor-mounted monorailstacking machine 104 which is shown as being movable at right angles tothe rails 103a and 101a. The warehouse 201 further receives a turntabletransfer device 106 for the coils. This warehouse can be provided withshelves or racks (not specifically shown) which enable it to store alarge number of coils (e.g., 150 or more).

FIG. 1 further shows a pair of furnace charging transporting devices orcars 105 which are movable along rails 105a toward and away from thepath of the crane 101 to introduce commodities into the annealingfurnaces 202. These furnaces are adjacent to the magazine 201.

The second section of the plant is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. This sectionaccommodates a group of four rolling mills 203, 205, 206, 210 and adepository or station 204 for coils at the entry and exit of eachrolling mill. Two coil lift and transfer cars 107 and 108 which can movethe coils and empty reels up or down as well as sideways are installedat a level below the rolling mills and the first car 107 is mounted fortravel lengthwise of the group 203, 205. The rolling mills 205 and 206are followed by the finishing mill 210 which is serviced by the device108. The reference character 209 denotes a trimming or edging machinefor the material issuing from the finishing mill 210. The rolling mill205 is associated with a cutter or shears 208.

A further transporting device in the form of a straddle or straddle liftcar 109 is provided to deliver commodities into an intermediate highstack warehouse 211 wherein the commodities are moved up or down orlengthwise of the warehouse 211 by a stacking machine 110 and can bestored in suitable racks, not shown. The car 109 is installed above anunderground passage 219.

A third section of the plant is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. This sectionreceives commodities from the intermediate warehouse 211 and contains abattery of slitting and rewinding machines 212 located at a level aboveone or more rail-mounted transporting devices or lift cars 111. Thelatter are movable lengthwise of the row of machines 212. A high stackwarehouse 216 with racks for the storage of commodities contains astacking machine 115 and is located at the discharge end of the thirdsection. A transporting device or straddle lift car 114 is provided totransport commodities resting in iron frames from storing stations 113to the machine 115. The stations 113 can receive annealed material andthe straddle frame of the conveyance 114 is also designed to transportmaterial whose temperature is high.

All slitters or rewinders 212 can receive commodities from a singlelifting device 111 or the rails 111a below the machines 212 can supporttwo or more lifting devices.

The fourth section of the plant is shown in FIG. 6. This sectionconnects the warehouse 216 with two transporting devices in the form offurnace charging cars 116, 117 which are movable along two spaced-apartpairs of rails 116a, 117a. The cars 116, 117 are movable toward and awayfrom the respective ends of the warehouse 216 and can delivercommodities to further (testing 118, inspecting 119, packing 213 and/orother 218) stations. A continuous heating or pusher type furnace 215 isinstalled in the space between the rails 216a, 217a, and serves toanneal the slit and rewound coils mounted on iron frames.

At least the warehouse 216 may be equipped with a suitable coolingsystem to insure that the annealed coils are cooled to room temperatureprior to transport to the next section.

It is assumed that the entering commodities are rolled sheets in theform of coils having a thickness of 0.8 millimeter and being wound inthe form of coils weighing about 10,000 kilograms. The coils aredelivered to the receiving station 200 of FIG. 1 by railroad cars. Thecrane 101 engages the axial ends of the reels and turns, if necessary,each reel through 180°.During such operation, the crane 101 iscontrolled by hand but its operation becomes automatic as soon as a reelis properly held. In accordance with a preselected program, the crane101 deposits the reel onto a charging car 105 or into one of the storinglocations 102. The lift car 103 removes the commodities seriatim fromthe locations 102 and introduces them into the first high stackwarehouse 210 where the commodities are taken over by the stackingmachine 104 and placed into or onto empty racks. The transport ofcommodities onto the racks of the warehouse 201 takes placeautomatically, for example, by resorting to a remote control systemusing punched cards. The control system records the placing of eachcommodity onto the corresponding rack of the warehouse 201, as well aseach subsequent processing step.

If desired, the charging car or cars 105 can receive commoditiesdirectly from the receiving station 200. Alternatively, the car or cars105 can receive commodities from the warehouse 201. The commodities areintroduced into an empty annealing furnace 202 and such operation, too,can be regulated automatically by a remote control system using punchedcards or the like.

The annealing in furnaces 202 prepares the commodities for treatment inthe rolling mills 203, 205, 206, 210 of FIGS. 2 and 3. The material ofthe commodities which are supplied to the station 200 is provided with ahard rolled temper. The annealed commodities which leave the furnaces202 are introduced into the warehouse 201 and are cooled therein to orsomewhat above room temperature.

The equipment which manipulates the commodities in the department ofFIG. 1 performs only lifting, lowering and angular movements and iscaused to travel only along straight paths. This renders it possible toregulate the movements of such equipment (which includes the crane 101,car or cars 105, car 103, turning device 106 and stacker 104) with ahigh degree of accuracy and by resorting to an automatic control system.As mentioned before, only certain movements of the crane 101 must becontrolled by an attendant due to the fact that the cars or trucks whichdeliver commodities are unlikely to deposit the commodities at thestation 200 in such accurately determined positions that the crane 101could be manipulated exclusively in accordance with a predeterminedschedule.

The storing locations 102 of FIG. 1 are assumed to comprise simplestands or supports for reels carrying coiled metallic bands. It isfurther assumed that the lift car 103 is provided with suitable meansfor gripping the free ends which extend from the reels resting on thesupports at the locations 102. The car 103 is movable back and forthalong a straight horizontal path (see the rails 103a) and comprisesmeans for moving the commodities thereon up and down. All movements ofthe car 103 and of its lifting means are initiated and monitored in afully automatic way.

The movements and position of the stacking machine 104 in the warehouse201 of FIG. 1 are also monitored and indicated by an automatic encodingsystem. For example, the material handling and the vehicle 104 may beconstructed, assembled and positioned in a manner as disclosed in SwissPat. Nos. 520,612; 523,848 (corresponding to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 269,464 filed July 6, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,285 byHerman Grevenstein for "Device for Raising and Lowering Loads"); 534,100and 536,790 (corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 273,143filed July 19, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,766 by Walter Suter for"Process and Device for the Fine Positioning of a Vertically MovablePlatform in Front of a Pallet Location") and 535,688 (corresponding toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 283,371 filed Aug. 24, 1972, now U.S.Pat. No. 3,845,715, by Rolf Hochstrasser for "Process and Apparatus forPositioning a Vehicle"). This vehicle may resemble or is identical withthe vehicle 110 in the intermediate warehouse 211 of FIGS. 2 and 3,and/or with the vehicle 115 in the warehouse 215 of FIGS. 4 and 5. Theonly difference is that the transmission ratios of gearings in thevehicle 104, 110 and 115 are different due to decreasing weight ofcommodities as their treatment progresses.

The coil lift cars 103, 107, 108 and 111 are also of well known andidentical simple construction and differ only in the length of strokesof their hoist spindles or rams. Again, the two straddle lift cars 109and 114 are of a type well known in the art and use identical partsthereby greatly facilitating maintenance and limiting the amount instock of spare parts required.

The furnace charging car 105, a stock item of the trade, is mounted forsidewise movement and is provided with supports for the free ends of thereels. It is further provided with an articulately mounted pusherassembly which is capable of introducing reels into or of withdrawingannealed commodities from thhe furnaces 202. The movements of the car105 are regulated by remote control and its positions are determined inaccordance with a preselected program, similar to that described in theforegoing citations.

The warehouse 201 is the high stack type (see the right-hand portion ofFIG. 3) and is assumed to be capable of storing 150 commodities each ofwhich weights about 10,000 kilograms. The first rolling mill 203 ofFIGS. 2 and 3 is assumed to process 10-15 annealed commodities per daywith up to four-five cold reducing passes and with the rewound coilsbeing allowed to cool again to room temperature after each pass. Forthis, the heavy coils are returned to the warehouse after each pass andan alternative coil is brought to the mill. In the meantime, the emptyreel is transferred from the unwinder side to the upwinder side of themill.

The handling is fully automatic, rapid and smooth, the turnover is highand the warehouse 201 does not occupy excessive floor space. The workfloor around the mills is free from obstructions and loads by the heavycoils. All of these operations are carried out in accordance with apredetermined program and the code system which is used to position thecommodities is preferably similar to or identical with the code systemfor commodities which are delivered to the receiving station 200, and asalready described in the foregoing citations.

The rolling mills 203, 205, 206 of FIGS. 2 and 3 are assumed to be ofthe latest type well known in the art and having a high output and beingcapable of reducing the thickness of the very soft bands to such anextent that the length of each band is increased. The shear 204 which isassociated with the rolling mill 205 severs the band midway between itsends and the two halves or sections of each band are rewound to form twodiscrete coils. This necessitates the provision of additional reels orspools which can be withdrawn from a separate magazine or hopper. Suchhopper can be refilled at required intervals by an overhead conveyorsystem, not shown. Each rewound coil weights about 5,000 kilogramsbecause it carries only half of a band which has been wound on a reeldelivered to the receiving station 200. Such reels are easier tomanipulate subsequently than a reel weighing up to and in excess of10,000 kilograms. If necessary, the rolled bands are trimmed in themachine 209 of FIGS. 2 and 3.

The turntable transfer device 106 is of well known type and is locatedat the inlet to the lower level which is formed by the foundations forthe rolling mills 203, 205, 206, 210. The foundations include columnsdefining a space for the lifting device 107 which is movable back andforth along a straight horizontal path and comprises means for raisingor lowering heavy commodities. The construction of devices 108 and 111is similar to that of the lifting device 107.

A commodity which is delivered by the stacking machine 104 in themagazine 201 is taken over by the device 106 which turns the commoditythrough 180 degrees and places it is an optimum position to be takenover by the lifting device 107. The latter transports the commodity tothe rolling mill which has been selected by the program and deposits thecommodity onto the appropriate portion of the frame forming part of theselected rolling mill. In the meantime, the freshly rewound band at theother end of the selected rolling mill is ready for removal. Such bandis picked up by the device 107 and is transferred to the turning device106. The device 107 travels at a level below the rolling mill 203 andreaches the inlet end of the rolling mill 205. As mentioned before, thebands which reach the mill 205 and halved at 204 and each half is woundonto a discrete reel. The thus obtained pairs of reels are taken over bythe device 108 which transports them lengthwise of the battery ofrolling mills and lifts the reels so that the can be engaged by thestraddle lift car 109 which delivers them to the intermediate high stackwarehouse 211. The actual deposition of reels in the magazine 211 iscarried out by the stacking machine 110. All of the just describedoperations are performed automatically. The selected program insuresthat a fresh commodity is delivered to the rolling mill which haspractically completed the treatment of the preceding commodity, that thefinished commodity is removed and put to storage and that the positionof each commodity and the movements of all commodites are recorded atall times. The programming of the operation can be effected by resortingto punched cards, magnetic tape or the like.

The underground passage 219 below the straddle car 109 of FIGS. 2 and 3constitutes an underground road for the traffic within the plant. Thistunnel can be used by trucks for the loading and transport ofsuperfluous empty reels.

The intermediate warehouse 211 performs the dual function of storingcommodities which are to be fed into the department of FIGS. 4-5 and oftemporarily storing the coils for rolling mills 203, 206 and 210. Forexample, the warehouse 211 can store up to and in excess of 800,000kilograms of material in the form of coils each weighing about 5,000kilograms.

The plant section of FIGS. 4-5 is adjacent to the warehouse 211. Itserves to prepare the cold-rolled material for annealing. The machines212 slit and rewind the bands at a floor level above the lifting device111 which is movable in a corridor and serves to accept coils from thestacker 110 and the warehouse 211. Such coils are delivered to thecutting machines 212 which subdivide the bands into shorter sectionseach of which is rewound onto a smaller reel. The thus loaded reels aredeposited on iron-frames which are transported by the straddle lift car114 for storage in the high stack warehouse 216. The deposition offrames with coils thereon is effected by the stacker 115. The unusedremainder of large coils is automatically returned into the warehouse211.

The cutting and slitting of bands in the machine 212 of FIGS. 4-5 iscarried out by full consideration of customers' specification.Therefore, the operations in the department of FIGS. 4-5 are normallysemiautomatic up to the delivery of goods to the conveyance 114. Fromthere on, the goods are again manipulated in accordance with apreselected program. The warehouse 216 is assumed to be capable ofreceiving about 300 frames.

The commodities which did not yet undergo a previous annealing treatmentwere withdrawn from the warehouse 216 for introduction into thedepartment of FIG. 6. The stacker 115 transfers such commodities ontothe charging car 116 for delivery to the intake end of the furnace 215.The frames with annealed commodities are discharged at the other end ofthe furnace 215 and are taken over by the vehicle 117 for delivery tothe stacker 115 in the warehouse 216.

The selected mode of manipulating the commodities is preferably suchthat the bands on various reels need never be touched by any claws,jaws, grippers or analogous clamping or supporting parts. This reducesthe likelihood of damage to, deformation and/or contamination of thestock. The annealed rolls are allowed to cool in the warehouse 216 andare thereupon removed by the vehicles 115, 116 for delivery toinspecting, packing and/or other stations. These latter operations arecarried out semiautomatically under supervision of one or moreattendants. The crates and cases with packed commodities are palletizedand then processed in a fully automatic way; they can be introduced intothe warehouse 218 for storage or for shipment to customers.

It will be noted that the transporting devices for commodities aredesigned to perform relatively simple movements along straight or starpaths. This simplifies the layout or the remote control system which iscalled upon to effect and regulate a relatively simple flow of materialalong straight and/or star-shaped paths. Such mode of operation andcontrol renders it possible to reduce the overall dimensions of theplant. Moreover, the commodities can be transported by relativelysimple, rugged and long-lasting transporting devices. As stated before,the commodities are transported in such a way that the bands are neitherdamaged, deformed or contaminated so that the number of rejects,cut-offs and trimmings is minimal. Furthermore, the conveyed commoditiesare held against swinging so that they can be rapidly accelerated and/ordecelerated and transported at a high speed to thus contribute to ahigher output of the production line.

It has been found that, even though the transporting devices whichconvey commodities between the warehouses 201, 211, 216 and the stationsof the production line, as well as in the magazines, are designed toperform relatively simple movements (up or down or along horizontalpaths), their overall number nned not exceed the number of more complextransporting devices in conventional plants wherein the commodities aretransported in such a way that each thereof has more than only ahorizontal and a vertical component of movement. With the novel method,there is no need to tilt the commodities during, prior to or aftertransport. Additional savings are achieved by using several sets ofsimilar transporting devices (such as 105, 110 and 115). The remoteprogramming system is relatively simple and compact and insures that theoperations can be carried out with highest reliability and a minimum ofsupervision. The simplicity of the programming system is attributable tothe fact that the transporting devices perform simple translatory orvertical movements. Therefore, the components of the programming systemcan be accommodated in relatively small control parels.

The example for the preferred embodiment has been selected because thestate of the art is well known, e.g., in "The Rolling of Metals" by L.R. Underwood, John Wiley & Sons Co. But also the solutions for the mainhandling problems have not shown any notable improvements over the last30 years, though well documented for example by L. O. Millard in"Developments in Coil Conveyor Equipment Design," Iron and SteelEngineer Year Book (1950) Pittsburgh, page 175 and by D. A. McArthur in"Coil Handling in the Steel Industry," same Volume, page 241, as well asby W. B. Hackett in "Production of Aluminum Foil," Iron and SteelEngineer Year Book (1952), page 537.

Especially the problems described by the cited authors makeunderstandable the progress which now has become possible with the newmethod, increasing throughput of an aluminum foil plant by more than 40percent over conventional operation, at the same time drasticallyreducing the amount of scrap for rework.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthe present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge,readily adapt it for various applications without omitting featureswhich fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic andspecific aspects of our contribution to the art and, therefore, suchadaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within themeaning and range of equivalence of the claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims:
 1. Apparatus for manipulating heavycommodities, especially convoluted bulky metallic band stock or thelike, in a plant wherein the commodities are treated at several stationsof at least one production line having a receiving end and a dischargeend and being located at a first level, comprising first and secondcommodity storing magazines respectively provided at said receiving anddischarge ends of the production line, said production line alsocomprising a furnace adjacent said second magazine, a battery of rollingmills and a depository for commodities adjacent to each of said rollingmills; and a plurality of transporting devices arranged to transport thecommodities between said magazines and to and from said stations on atleast one second level which is located above or below said first levelwhile holding said commodities against swinging so that they can berapidly accelerated or decelerated, said transporting devices includingat least one lifting device movable along and at a level below saidrolling mills and arranged to deliver to said depositories commoditieswhich are withdrawn from said first magazine.
 2. Apparatus formanipulating heavy commodities, especially convoluted band stock or thelike in a plant wherein said commodities are treated at several stationsof at least one production line having a receiving end and a dischargeend and being located at a first level, comprising first and secondmagazines respectively provided at the receiving and discharge ends ofthe production line; said production line includes a furnace adjacent tosaid second magazine, a floor located at said first level on which saidseveral stations are located along a line spaced from each other, saidfloor being provided with openings between stations; a tunnel locatedbelow said floor at a second level different from said first level, saidtunnel being vertically aligned with said line; a plurality oftransporting devices to transport the commodities between said magazinesand to and from said stations with said transporting devices and saidcommodities thereon as they are transported between said stationsarranged in said tunnel at said second level different from said firstlevel; and means on each of said transporting devices for transferringthe commodities thereon from said second to said first level, wherebysaid transferring means may be used to lift said commodities from saidtransporting devices through said openings to said first level.